With the growth of a taste for pure Japanese literature reverence for the sovereign was intensified and propagated. Its influence was most potent in Mito, the lord of which edited the "_Dai Nihon Shi_" (History of Great Japan), which as scripture of loyalty was widely read. Another work which exercised a similar influence was the "_Nihon-gaishi_" by Rai Sanyō. Various motives so largely contributed to the growth of loyal sentiment that ultimately a secret imperial rescript was issued to the Mito vassals, instructing them to unite with the _tozama_ barons and assist the shōgun to expel foreigners from the country. The _Tairō_ Ii, vehemently attacked for exceeding the powers that properly belonged to him, now took another resolute and decisive step. He dismissed all the senior officials who opposed his policy, and retained in office only those in harmony with him. He further announced that any person placing obstacles in the way of measures adopted by the government should be severely dealt with, and in pursuance of this declaration he placed in confinement or dismissed from office civil nobles of highest distinction, and inflicted penalties on six feudal barons of the greatest magnitude. An equally drastic course was adopted in the case of the leading Edo officials, and more than fifty prominent retainers of noblemen, as well as _rōnin_, scholars, priests, and even women, were seized and sent into exile. These decisive proceedings procured for the period the name of the "Ansei Jail," but the _tairō_ had at least the satisfaction of knowing that he had shown his courage and competence to deal summarily with his opponents. Great excitement prevailed, however, among all classes of the people, above all, the Mito _samurai_. On the snowy morning of the 3d of the third month, 1860, as the _Tairō_ Ii was _en route_ for the palace of the shōgun, he was attacked and killed by eighteen Mito _rōnin_ under the leadership of Sano Takenosuke, and a year later the _Rōjiu_ Andō Nobumasa, was attacked near the Sakashita gate of the castle. In order to restore harmony between the courts of Kyōto and Edo, the latter now arranged a marriage between the Shōgun Iyemochi and the emperor's sister, but though the sovereign sanctioned this union, it brought no peace for the country. Not only did the anti-Tokugawa agitation continue in noble and official circles, but also _rōnin_, partly in obedience to the exclusion policy, but chiefly seeking to increase the embarrassments of Edo, attacked foreigners and burned their houses, the shōgun's administration showing itself powerless to check these outrages. By degrees the _samurai_, who had separated themselves from their fiefs in order to carry on the agitation, assembled in Kyōto, where were already gathered great numbers of influential persons interested in the burning question of the day, and where the emperor himself lent the sanction of his indorsement to the doings of the malcontents.